This week on Social Media Unscrambled we discussed two specific lead generation strategies, and of course an overabundance of other interesting topics. …And a quick Thank You to our sponsor, TribeBoost! A great way to grow your Twitter audience with relevant and quality people. Learn More Here, and be sure to use Coupon Code “unscrambled” for 15% OFF the first month 😉

Then we focused on two specific practical strategies to help generate more and better leads with social media.

First up was Chris. He started using Twitter to search at Search.Twitter.com to find local businesses. He selectively sent Tweets to several individuals/businesses in the Parsippany area offering them the opportunity to promote their brands on his Business Beat Radio show. Then…(for another touch point) Chris located those individuals on LinkedIn and sent LinkedIn invitations to them with a personal note and included his phone number too. A few of them actually called the same day – Great job Chris!

Meanwhile one of David’s clients was looking for artist representation as a musician. Once he posted a question on a LinkedIn group an attorney replied intelligently to the conversation, at which point his client replied and is looking to retain him as a client. Lesson: answer other people’s questions on LinkedIn and you are more likely to want to work with them.

Overall the lesson is to offer something for free for your intended audience. In other words: givers gain.

Then we got onto a much more important topic: who would win in a fight between Superman and Juggernaut. While our esteemed listeners (such as Ralph Rivera and others) insisted that Superman would win, david not-so-respectfully disagreed and showed them why they were all wrong.

Finally our tip of the week: give first, don’t expect to get and you will receive results. The same goes in any other aspect of business.

*and THANKS to all our listeners for tweeting along LIVE with hashtag #unscrambled!

And Thanks again to our sponsor, TribeBoost! (helping you grow your Twitter audience….and be sure to use Coupon Code “unscrambled” for 15% OFF the first month 😉

This week on Social Media Unscrambled we welcomed Brian Crouch, Director of Marketing for MediaPro! We would like to designate him ‘GroupMaster’ (specifically referring to LinkedIn Groups) following this episode. …And a quick Thank You to our sponsor, TribeBoost! A great way to grow your Twitter audience with relevant and quality people. Learn More Here, and be sure to use Coupon Code “unscrambled” for 15% OFF the first month 😉

Brian Crouch – Director of Marketing at MediaPro

As always we started with some lighthearted banter and launched into our Weekly News Item: the horrifying reality of a Kickstarter project where a guy asked for $10 for potato salad but ended up raising over $36,000. Frankly, this exasperated all three of us, as otherwise we find the crowdfunding site to be revolutionary for those looking to raise money for serious projects. We also wondered if this was a Jimmy Kimmel-esque prank on all of us.

We then began speaking with Brian at length about how to use social media effectively and, like all of our guests (and your hosts) he agreed that the right way to strive for social media success is not by self-promotion but instead by sincere helpfulness and relationship building. He spoke in-depth about the power and potential of LinkedIn Groups. He said these Groups can play an effective role for your business if you engage actively in them by answering other people’s questions, commenting and inviting relevant conversations there. After all, if you simply send your updates to all Groups simultaneously, you are just spraying and praying, not listening or engaging. So ultimately you should choose your groups (and your engagement with those groups) carefully.

One good tip Brian gave (among MANY!) was to check a group’s statistics before joining to see if it’s worth your time. Click the little i near the top right of the group page, then click ‘Group Statistics’ to be enlightened by comment-to-post ratios and other handy information.

Brian also spelled out an extensive detailed plan to get a TON of value from a group – step by step, including how to join a group, begin a strong relationship with the group administrator, gain trust of the members, contribute intelligently, PLUS a classy way to have your message shared around the group without you actually doing it yourself!

Also, many of the Live listeners were asking for us to list the books that Brian mentioned. Here they are:

Finally, we wrapped up with our tip of the week — which Chris reminded David was the same one from five episodes ago: If a stranger wants to connect with you on LinkedIn, before you blindly accept their request use the “Reply (don’t accept yet)” feature to ask them how/if you know each other and/or what you can do for them. Bad David, Bad!

Director of Marketing for MediaPro, the leading provider of eLearning solutions in data protection and compliance. He’s been in digital marketing since 2004, and was a founding board member of the Seattle Social Media Club. He lives in Bothell, a small town north of Seattle, with his wife and 2 adorable kids.

And a quick Thank You to our sponsor, TribeBoost! A great way to grow your Twitter audience with relevant and quality people. Learn More Here, and be sure to use Coupon Code “unscrambled” for 15% OFF the first month 😉

As always we started the show with a news item – in fact, this week we had two news items to share. The first came from listener and previous guest Kathy Kelly who submitted this very interesting news item: A guy who stole a woman’s purse later added her as a friend on Facebook causing him to be caught. David suggested that you should never rob someone. But if you must, by all means, friend them on Facebook as soon as possible! The other news item came from a homophobic restaurant in Texas whose tactics backfired when people went online and announced that the restaurant (which does not accept gay customers) was in fact a very gay-friendly place, so far as calling it “Big Gay Al’s” (which is a reference to South Park).

Then we dove right into talking with our guest Kimberly Penney who (among many other services) manages various social media accounts for her clients. We were surprised to learn that most of her clients were actually remote and not local to Texas. She primarily uses two social media management tools: Vocus and Hootsuite. We discussed each platform, some of their capabilities and differences. Kimberly said you have to be careful using each because you really have to respect the culture of each platform as well as the social media sites they are posting to. Sometimes it’s important to share on the native site, especially when it comes to LinkedIn groups, which does not allow posting from either of these 3rd party tools.

Our tip of the week: What do you do when someone adds you on LinkedIn and you don’t know them? Well, our approach is to simply reach out to them and ask them who they are and how you can help them (before you accept their connection request!). David explained how to do this, and this actually generated a potential lead for David a couple of hours before this episode.

This was a content-rich episode with lots of conversation happening on Twitter real-time. Join us live next time so you can join in too! …with #unscrambled

Kimberly Penney

Kimberly Penney is the owner of Visage Inc. She is a Certified Software Project Manager and has 20 years of experience with eCommerce Development, Project Management, Public Relations Search Engine Optimization and Social Media Management. She currently commands a team of 20 developers and Social Media / SEO professionals. She also owns a bathroom remodeling company called SafeShowers.com and is an owner / investor in a Bertram, Texas winery and tasting room called PilotKnobVineyard.com.

In her spare time, she enjoys appearing on TMZ Live as a guest commentator, going to music festivals, wine tasting, cooking, and mocking her pets named Dangerpants, Bruiser and Bevo.

Thanks again, Kimberly!!!

*and THANKS to all our listeners for tweeting along LIVE with hashtag #unscrambled!

And Thanks again to our sponsor, TribeBoost! (helping you grow your Twitter audience….and be sure to use Coupon Code “unscrambled” for 15% OFF the first month 😉

*Dino mentioned a BIG discount for the New Media Expo, which will be held in Las Vegas January 4-6, 2014. If you purchase tickets on Black Friday you’ll get 50% off plus another 20% if you use the code dino20.